Update – 5:00pm – Microsoft just announced that the company has reversed two major Xbox One policies. The Xbox One will not require a 24-hour check-in and it will work with used games just as the Xbox 360 does. This is a complete about-face for the company and a huge policy shift for the console. Basically, this changes everything. This will impact other features, such as the disc-in-tray policy, so it’s not all good news, but most people’s complaints have been addressed.

Given the flood of information released at E3 last week, it’s not surprising that it has taken a few days for the US military to notice Microsoft’s new stance on the Xbox One and how it impacts the men and women in uniform. Now that the show is over, a growing number of people are vocally unhappy over Microsoft’s plans to not support US troops on deployment or stationed in non-supported areas of the world.

We first covered this last week, when Don Mattrick, President of Microsoft’s Interactive Entertainment Division, said: “Fortunately we have a product for people who aren’t able to get some form of connectivity, it’s called Xbox 360. If you have zero access to internet, that is an offline device.” He then independently raised the issue of whether or not Microsoft would support soldiers on deployment with the Xbox One — and stated that they wouldn’t. “I’ve got to imagine that it’s not easy to get an internet connection. Hey, I can empathize. If I was on a sub, I’d be disappointed.”

For military personnel, Xbone is AWOL

There are multiple problems with Microsoft’s new strategy. You can only play an Xbox One in an approved country. Writing for the Navy Times, Jon Anderson notes: “if you’re based in Japan, Kuwait or Afghanistan, you’re out of luck.” Games are region-locked and region-activated — you can’t buy a game in the US and activate it in Japan. That means no spouses sending games as part of a care package.

Microsoft has defended its online policy by claiming that game check-ins are a matter of kilobytes, not megabytes, but that still assumes that connectivity is widely available in any capacity. In April 2012, Navy Times detailed the internet capabilities of at-sea vessels, noting that sailors lined up to use rows of systems in a manner familiar to anyone who attended college in the mid-1990s. Navy vessels have internet service via satellite, but the bulk of that capacity is dedicated to ship operations. The fraction of the total reserved for sailors is split between several hundred and several thousand people.

Ground deployments are just as dicey. Online access is governed by the commanding officer and access to the internet in any sort of combat zone will be hit-and-miss. Even when service is available, homefront communication is going to be prioritized. Military journalists have asked Microsoft for additional information in the days since E3, only to be met with stonewalling. Microsoft’s new favorite strategy is to tell gamers that there are lots of blockbusters coming for the Xbox 360 in 2013 and 2014.

A bridge too far

It’s time for Redmond to rethink this policy. Members of the military may be a small group in absolute terms, but the armed forces are built almost entirely from one of gaming’s core demographics — young men and women, aged 18-35. It’s also a demographic that has favored the Xbox 360, thanks to a heavier emphasis on first-person shooters. Blowing them off alienates some of the Xbox’s strongest supporters.

In the weeks since Microsoft’s Xbox One unveil, multiple publishers have stated that they were just as surprised by the DRM and used game restrictions as players were. Whether that’s accurate or not is unclear — it’s possible that publishers who privately lobbied for used game restrictions are backing away from that claim now that consumer response has come out overwhelmingly against it. Either way, Microsoft is standing on a sandbar at high tide.

It’s time to change course. While I think Microsoft should abandon its 24-hour check-in, used game restrictions, and region locking altogether, I realize that this is extremely unlikely. Far from abandoning these policies, the company has actually doubled down on them: Not only is the Xbox One region-locked, it’s activation-locked as well. If you import a console from the UK while living in Portugal, you won’t be able to play games until the Xbox One service is available in your country.

Barring a change of heart so profound Dickens might have balked at writing it, Microsoft is committed to going over the cliff. Despite this, we believe Microsoft should to carve out an exemption for members of the US military. Troops on deployment should be able to register their consoles in some fashion, possibly by submitting documentation that proves their identity and military status. Failure to do so will hand Sony several million PS4 purchases during the critical early adopter period. Sony is already moving to capitalize on Microsoft’s stupidity on this front.

Military personnel have unique needs that can’t be covered under a blanket consumer policy. Don’t just “empathize” with people serving on a nuclear sub — take action that will benefit them.

Tagged In

Simply cannot understand any of Microsoft’s thought processes during all this. It does not make sense in any way or capacity to antagonise so many of your own fans.

http://geek.com/ sal cangeloso

Many people in absolute terms, but a very small percentage of the userbase. At least that would be my guess at how this was justified.

Simon Fornari

precisely – they are only looking at the bottom line for the console and how that will effect the companies earnings. I think the fact that the previous generation was initially sold at a loss for MS has made them tighten the belt across the board.

If they can truly empathize with their consumer, then they would see the load of garbage they are asking us to buy.

Joel Hruska

According to some of what I’ve read, the military accounts for a fairly high attach rate as far as games purchased. It’s an extremely popular past-time for troops on deployment.

Jamie MacDonald

A small but passionate group can and has created a PR backlash unlike any other against Microsoft, in that case.

It feels universally hated, or at best, lived with. No-one seems to be treating the idea of purchasing it with any joy or excitement, not nearly in the same way the 360 had.

Mike E. Delta

Sure it does, infamy just spreads the name good or bad, why would they care…ooh! Maybe Microsoft is trolling the industry and the gamers! Lol, ah…Schadenfreude. =P

Jamie MacDonald

Considering they just revoked their policies, that might have been the plan.

Stupid plan though, it left the door open for Sony to sell hard and fast against them.

YellowGiant

Excellent! Microsoft’s first pro-active move towards World-Peace – There’s no more subtle way of saying, “Get out of the damn military! You’re not serving ANYONE by being there!”

paleh0rse

Is that really how you feel about the US military personnel, or are you just trolling?

YellowGiant

Yes, that’s how I feel!
When your country’s military spends so much time in other people’s countries, how can it claim to be “protecting its own borders”?
The military serves no purpose at all, except for offering free education to those who otherwise wouldn’t get one.
I’m sorry, but if you truly believe you are “serving your country” by being in the armed forces, you have been totally brainwashed by the Military Industrial Complex and the mass media.

Joel Hruska

Riiiiiiiiight. Ok. Thanks for sharing!

Turk February

Can you help me find the Tin foil hats your also selling ???

Mike E. Delta

I don’t really think anyone is catching the sarcasm dripping from your comments, they just might be too young to understand. =/

paleh0rse

I’m sorry you feel that way.

By the way, the US military’s mission is not to “protect its own borders,” so they (we) have never made that “claim.”

Protecting and securing the borders is DHS’s mission — or CBP’s, specifically.

Shannon Walker

Well put.

YellowGiant

Fair enough!

The rest is just semantics – Regardless of what the US military’s “mission” is, I don’t believe they have any right to be in another country.

I believe what I believe because I have looked at BOTH sides of the argument, and (call me a “tin-hatter” if you like) think the evidence for mass-media manipulation supported by the powers-that-be is overwhelming.

You say to me, “How can you believe that?” I say to you, “How can you not?” – So, we’re at our impasse.

The difference, I daresay, is that you’ve only looked at one side of the story, and then scoffed at anything that might oppose the official version, while I have given each version equal time and due diligence before coming to my conclusions.

Anyway, thank you for at least being polite, and not resorting to the ridiculing techniques, name-calling or profanity so often used by others. Appreciated.

Aaron Jennifer Mastro

This guy is a dirt bag. He’s probably too much of a pussy to serve in the military anyways.

Damon

i smell a dishonorable discharge….

GatzLoc

Stfu you Ameri-cunts. All you’re doing is ‘serving’ a lesser evil than you’re fighting, you can’t claim justice either way. And true saint-soldiers always blow the brains out of these blood funded mercenaries.

ਵਾਹਿਗੁਰੂ ਜੀ ਕਾ ਖਾਲਸਾ|

ਵਾਹਿਗੁਰੂ ਜੀ ਕੀ ਫਤਹਿ||

Chris Shakal

Stay classy

Ken Stewart

You’re a genuine turd.

dizzymenace

you are looking at this in the wrong way . the xbone wont be available in those regions where troops are based (not including the navy) , it wont be available to the native population . its by no means a way for m$ to build a bridge for world peace , just another fuck up

Jamie MacDonald

Microsoft aren’t doing this for peace. They fund the “Military-Industrial Complex” just as much as all the other big corporations do.

Also why are you bringing global politics into a discussion on XBoxes?

They probably aren’t supporting Afghanistan purely because it doesn’t have a comparable infrastructure to other countries.

mike921

this is no surprise as most at MS have never served their country – they only profit off of it…

YveZ

Uhhh I think because of this:United States v. Microsoft Corporation 253 F.3d 34 (2001) is a US antitrust law case, ultimately settled by the Department of Justice, where Microsoft Corporation was accused of becoming a monopoly and engaging in abusive practices contrary to the Sherman Antitrust Act 1890 sections 1 and 2. It was initiated on May 18, 1998 by the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) and 20 states. Joel I. Klein was the lead prosecutor. search it online

Mike E. Delta

You’re right, better the profits go to a foreign corporation…who actually have OUR best interests at heart.

Damon

yea, its not a hard concept, happy customers buy more and want more to buy.

Guest

Being a Navy vet, I know the couple of hours we were able to play our 3

Neutrino .

Region locked game activation! Holy crap I wouldn’t touch that with a 10ft pole.

Mike E. Delta

I seriously haven’t understood the whole desire for “next-gen” hardware, since NO ONE is ready to move on to a new generation, we’re all still living in the OLD one! I will cling happily to my 360 as it has never failed me . When the world is ready to change then I guess I will jump into that future. Sony can “capitalize” all it wants, sounds to me like they’re just willing to do anything to exploit service members. =

Mike E. Delta

I’m saying that both are wrong and neither really care…that’s not their function. By the by, aren’t we all already used to having to “grab our ankles” anyway..? (I speak from experience, 97-03) =[
PS – I apologize for the graphic reference, but you know what I mean…

Joel Hruska

How is Sony “doing anything to exploit service members?”

You buy a PS4, it works anywhere. You buy a PS4 game, it works anywhere. If you still own a PS3, you get the same deal.

That’s not exploitation. In point of fact, Sony’s entire marketing on this point boils down to: “We aren’t changing anything.” Yes, they’re *talking* about that, but the only reason they’re talking about it is because Microsoft *is* changing things, and gamers don’t like it.

It’s hard to argue that Sony is exploiting the military when the only thing Sony is doing is highlighting the things it hasn’t done.

Mike E. Delta

You’re right, but you should STILL feel exploited by the very fact that they’re only taking advantage a poor situation just to make those sales, trust me its the smart move by them but don’t think for a moment they really care. You’re just a dollar amount and a statistic to them…remember, I feel that neither party is a saint. Both are trying to act like angels when we can clearly see the dirt on their faces, lol =P

yasamoka

That’s what businesses do. They…profit.

Their feelings and intentions towards their customers never really matter. They don’t bundle love, candy, and lollipops with their consoles. They are there to make a profit.

As far as Sony’s strategy goes, it’s a smart strategy to capitalize on what Microsoft has messed up with.

I wouldn’t want to think what would have happened if at any one generation, all consoles available went lockity-lock.

But then again, there’s always someone in the scene who makes sure to grab sales by NOT going lockity-lock.

Charles Seizinger

also.. orders are coming down to prohibit the console from DoD installations due to persistent security risks (much like the furby issue years ago.)

furthermore.. not only is the internet and drm an issue for military, the fact that it is region locked, and NOT multivoltage capable makes not getting an xbox one a no brainer.

the ps3 WAS sold at a loss (even today, making something off the shelf with the computing potential of a cell is difficult and costly), the 360 was not, in fact.. they really duped a lot of people to pay for what was, in reality, ancient technology in terms of gaming.

Ray C

I’m not sure anyone was duped. Both systems had similar hardware and pricing. You’re only duped if you feel like the didn’t get value for what you paid. I never buy anything in the first 6 months, sometimes not the first year. But I don’t think anyone who bought either system and enjoyed the time they had playing them should be considered duped. It’s not like there was some other gaming system out there with tech that was miles ahead of the 360 that was being ignored.

Joel Hruska

There are multiple flaws in your statement:

1). The Xbox 360’s CPU is the PPE from Cell. Three of them, to be precise, with some very small modifications. This has been documented at length; IBM did a major end-run around Sony and used the tech Sony and Toshiba were paying for to outfit Sony’s largest competitor in consoles.

2). The Xenos GPU inside the Xbox 360 is more advanced than the RSX instead the PS3. Xenos was the first programmable GPU — out before the G80 or the ATI R600.

Marrach

Actually NOT surprised with this attitude from Micro$oft.
They will RAM their product down our throats whether we want it or not. Just like they are doing with Windows 8. The 1% Executives & Excel Sheet diddlers who don’t give a crap about Good Programming or Engineering have taken over M$ and this is the Result.

So where are the Tech MS Win8 Fanboys who should be telling our boys in the military to just ‘Suck it up’ and ‘Deal with it’? After all, as we constantly read in your posts, YOU don’t see a problem with it and the world revolves around what you see when you touch YOUR keyboard.

Ray C

Not quite sure what this has to do with Windows 8 or exactly Windows 8 is being rammed down anyone’s throat. I work in IT, and I know every day I run into more and more people who are getting used to Windows 8. Win8.1 is being released soon and down the line that will be other updates. I was initially in the “I hate MS for the changes made in Win8” crowd, but after a while I realized that Win8 is not overall a bad product, Microsoft should have simply implemented some things better to make the transition smoother. As for X-Box one, I’m not quite understanding their strategy other than protecting their investment, but I agree there are some things they could have done better. Maybe 24 hours is too short a check-in time. Maybe it should be 48 or 72. As for this military issue, I think they are the only people special circumstances should be made for. I’m not sure region-locking really helps MS that much, but I do think they need to come up with a work-around for military facilities. To be honest, until talk started about the X-Box One, I never really knew military personnel played gaming systems so much on an individual basis. I always assumed they played them in more of a group or game room setting.

Marrach

To be fair– it isn’t that I have an opinion of Win 8 Good or Bad. It was the little points of what I considered to be ‘Illogical Transigence’ such as the red-herring row over the Start Menu. There is NO programmer-engineering reason that I can see that can say that giving the majority of Users the continuance of an iconic interface will cause the entire OS kernel to crash and burn.

A Lot of us said– okay– Win8 is okay…but where’s the Start Menu?

And M$ decided that we were asking for Heaven and Earth to be moved and said Metro Start is what you get. Suck it up and Like it. And the Fanboys carpet bombed every forum where they saw a complaint.

A Competent Program scheme could have EASILY rendered the iconic Start menu as an OPTION– but the Executives decided otherwise…despite User surveys to the contrary.

So that’s the focus of my Ire. The Windows 8 row is just an example of what I call Executive Suites Deafness at the top. And so back to the Military angle.

It is a known fact that a lot of Military guys and gals are HEAVILY into online gaming and FPS and military campaign games. If you’re a Gaming company, your Executives are the ones who should have a finger on the pulse of your Market. That’s WHY they are the Executives– or at least that was the Old model.

Today’s Large Corporate Executives don’t give me the sense that they see us as Consumers of their Products. Instead, I get the feeling they see us as dumb suckers who will take whatever is shoved at them, because that OUR Job now. To just Pay them Money…even if the Product sucks.

Ray C

Microsoft just simply needs to offer some type of local check in device to groups like the military that can’t do individual check-ins on a regular basis, but over time all these things can be worked out

Charles Seizinger

no.. if they want to make a machine for gamers, WORLD WIDE gamers.. there should have been no check in requirement, no 1.5 minimum standard, made it multi-voltage capable, and not made it region locked. they simply added a few more issues to what prevented the 360 from being a global machine.

And you can claim it was more popular all you want, but psn having more than twice as many users online globally, tells a different story.

Turk February

PSN is a free service , it would be more fair to Compare Xbox Live sub’s to PS+ Subs, which for all I know there still might be more subscribers to PS+ then XBL . Stats can be meaningless with out context.

Charles Seizinger

that is part of it.. the fact that it is free.. not region locked… and in a global market…

online players is online players.. no matter if they payed to do it or not, having more than twice as many players online than there are xbl subscribers… pretty telling stat. and has much more merit than the bloated sales figures MS like to spam about, not differentiating the installment of a console to a customer, nor the replacement of a burnt out console (xb360 had an 87% failure rate on launch, years later, today, they are down to a 54% failure rate, which is higher than flipping a coin to see if your 360 will work out of the box, vs. ps3 having less than .05% failure rate.)

“popularity” (as in.. the word of mouth and viral advertising of ms), and inaccurate sales figures,do not denote a better system, nor the one most used. one is used in only a few places.. the other is part of a global market and much easier to implement with its lack of severe restrictions.

Turk February

I say if it starts affecting MS’s bottom line and profits they might sing a different tune.

Tim

There’s no reason it should ever even come to requiring service personnel to provide proof to be able to bypass the 24 hour check, etc. It should just be removed for everyone. I would not be surprised to see a massive structural shakeup at MS in the coming months. The Xbox division was one of the most profitable, but if they don’t fix these issues and that sector tanks, investors are going to be grabbing pitch forks and torches.

Jason Smith

Sounds like people are using the military spin more as a means to an ends rather than a genuine interest in their situation. Also, give the guy a break. Like none of you have never accidentally misused the words “empathize” and “sympathize.”

Joel Hruska

I don’t care about the word. Empathy and sympathy are the wrong response. The right response is: “We’ll find a way to ensure that military gamers on deployment without Internet access can play games on the Xbox One.”

Anything besides that is wrong. It might be varying degrees of wrong, but tha’s all.

Basil Nolan

Truly, how can Microsoft hear the thundering protests at their doorstep and pretend everything’s going to be OK? They’re losing fans at every [gaming] segment and they still proudly sit stand like “a boss”.

Truly, either their strategy is totally wrong and never to be understood, or is reaching record levels of stupidity.

And I was an Xbox fan.

Shannon Walker

Well, M$ made my decision very easy. Good job A-holes! I am going to trade in my 360 for a Vita as well.

Chumchum

This is such a bad business move. I know a lot of people in Kuwait who play Xbox and are Xbox fans, to see Microsoft do this is heartbreaking but not surprising. I knew Microsoft would pull a boneheaded move like this thats why stop supporting them two years ago. The Xbox was the only thing that I did support, but not this generation. I don’t own a single Microsoft product anymore. I use Apple computers, Android phone and Sony/Nintendo consoles. And they better hope Apple doesn’t come out with another gaming console, otherwise they’re console is dead.

Vextorized

What a shame, as a member of The United States Army, I will not be buying an Xbox One, but a PS4 instead becase it can play games offline for more than 24 hours.

What was Microsoft thinking?

RoadShow

I just want to say that I have called this out for a very long time.

M$ and the Xbox brand have proven time and time again to piss on the consumer any time that it’s convenient to them.

(1) Made Halo 2 for PC Vista only – with directx11 I understand needing a game to be on one or 2 OS but back in Halo 2 with Vista there was no excuse – this is a forced upgrade to PC gamers.

(2) Dropped all support/services/games on orig. xbox as soon as 360 was here. I don’t care about what agreements or licenses M$ made with whoever, it was M$’s job to ensure they gave the customer a quality product they could use for years. Instead Xbox 1 (the 1st one) was short lived while PS2 still has 1 more game coming out even now.

(3) RROD happened and it happened so M$ could gain market share and it worked. 55% failure for 5 years is totally unacceptable but M$ didn’t care because it was the consumer that suffered for it.

(4) Xbox live is a worthless subscription. It is a sub that only allows you to access basic features like the browser (finally after 8 years 360 has one), streaming services, online play & cross game chat. There is no value in this sub.

(5) Xbox 360 hardware is grossly overpriced. It has no blu ray, no browser for 8 years, no wifi for 5 years, the only gaming platform pay to play and even ads on the home page. Huge external power supply, old CD tray, disk swapping like it’s 1995 due to old DVD tech. Even the controllers are grossly overpriced. $50 yet they lack blue tooth/gyro and built in recharge batteries. Pay $20 more for a battery pack making each $70 and still lacking high tech and quality.

You have but to look at the companies past to see the future. I have been calling this out for 8 years, xbox 360 is the biggest hunk of junk ever put on the market and no one should have stuck with them after RROD, no one should have stuck with them when they got it home and realized that they have to pay $300 every 5 years to do ANYTHING other than play single player games and watch DVD’s.

it’s basically a no brainer looking at the past that M$ doesn’t care for the consumer. Always connected & used game policy is no different. The fact that Xbox live isn’t going to give any free games for the X1 and the 2 free games a month on 360 are going to end in just 6 months.

PS+ may be required for PS4 to play online but at least PS+ has proved to be a valuable subscription service – $140 of free games this month alone – 6 PS3 games and 2 PS Vita games.

David King

Couldn’t have said it better myself. Xbox is a piece of junk, the fact that an Xbox could potentially cost you 1000 dollars in 5 years is absurd.

You haven’t even touched up on all the madness they probably will program with the ‘always-on’ kinect. Imagine receiving this error on a single-player offline game:

“Your kinect has not detected any human presence, please face the camera towards you to continue”. Microsoft already gives about 0 fucks about user privacy, did they think they could just slip in an always-on dual-camera and microphone? Everybody I know that has a kinect, now has a nice brick sitting by there TV. It certainly doesn’t make my video games more interesting.

“Microsoft has defended its online policy by claiming that game check-ins are a matter of kilobytes, not megabytes, but that still assumes that connectivity is widely available in any capacity.”

I may be sitting here with my tin foil hat on, but in a closed source OS that MS has complete control of, I bet you they will be sending gigabytes, not megabytes, of ‘anonymous’ collective data.

Also, I don’t understand why Xbox is so adamant about discriminating based on region, is the new Xbox racist? Just seems like lost sales to me.

Will PS3 be the last of the consoles you truly own?

Charles Hammond

Time for a Drone Strike on Microsoft HQ’s! No sir, I dont know what happened the drone just quit responding . . . .

Charles Hammond

Microsoft is pulling an NSA. They want to spy on everyone to see if you are doing anything illegal!

Charles Hammond

Big Brother is Watching.

zapper

MS Baldy shot himself in foot
for want of more money

TheOtherTurnipTaliban

Don’t the armed forces get enough Xbox-style gaming fun when they’re machine-gunning Reuters journalists from helicopters or blowing up vans full of kids or laughing as they drive humvees over the freshly eviscerated corpses of yet more journalists?

PromKnight

Region Free… FTW

Chris Shakal

Some people just want to watch the world burn.

R M

Non story, the support will be there. MS will work with our troops I guarantee it. This story is just another anti Xbox one story to get peoples attention needlesly.

Mirimon

yeah.. no, being active duty, there are still limitations, like.. multi-voltage.. only the US, VERY few countries, and more stationary US bases use 110v. anything overseas, in combat arenas, (not the R&R posts) run 220-240v… xb1 is NOT multi voltage, it is also massive.
Then.. what happens when it is a gift, shipped over? who ever sent it has to know about, and go through the hassle of setting it up over the internet for the initial installation and updates.. otherwise it’s just a brick (goes the same for the 40% of Americans who don’t have internet, as well as much of the world.. no internet= no initial setup=no gaming.

No thanks… Smaller, more capable, a history of products that don’t die every 4 months, multi-voltage, and works right out of the box, Firmware updates are also on the newest game discs…

no, this active duty sapper will not be using an xbox for much of anything except at the demo-range.. is the xbox one c-4 compliant?

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